May 8th Meetup – Cooperative Ownership and Business Models in the Tech World

Our speaker this month will be Robert Matney. Robert Matney is Co-Owner and COO of Polycot Associates, a web development agency and is a co-founder and Technology Director of Whirligig Productions. Robert is also Technology Director for Hidden Room Theatre and a Board Trustee for Austin Shakespeare, a multi-award-winning stage and voice actor and director, and a web technologist with Polycot Associates. Recently, Robert played Andrei in Lola Pierson and Yury Urnov’s “Thr3e Zisters” for Salvage Vanguard Theatre, Sebastian Topflyte in Paul Menzer’s “Invisible, Inc.” and Duke Humphrey in “Rose Rage” (the latter two for Hidden Room Theatre), and the title role in “Uncle Vanya” for Breaking String Theater. You can battle Robert’s voice as Doctor Psycho and Starro in the video game DC Universe Online. Robert was a speaker or presenter at South By Southwest Interactive 2013, 2012 and 2011, as well Blackfriars 2011, 2013, 2015, and Fusebox Festival 2011 and 2017.

Robert will be leading us in a discussion of cooperative business models and their place in the world of technology and development. Using the company Polycot Associates (a web development firm where Robert is the COO) as a case study, Robert will briefly touch upon the differing types of cooperatives and where tech/dev lives in the broader cooperative movement before transitioning into questions such as how to handle tactical management with loose hierarchy in the context of an egalitarian member-owner leadership structure, as well as the process via which Polycot was converted from a sole proprietorship with contractors into a coop.

Cooperative Ownership and Business Models in the Tech World

Monday, May 8, 2017, 7:00 PM

Capital Factory701 Brazos Street, Suite 1601 Austin, TX

31 Activists Went

Our speaker this month will be Robert Matney. Robert Matney is Co-Owner and COO of Polycot Associates, a web development agency and is a co-founder and Technology Director of Whirligig Productions. Robert is also Technology Director for Hidden Room Theatre and a Board Trustee for Austin Shakespeare, a multi-award-winning stage and voice actor and d…

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